Sunday, December 15, 2013

Beyond 2000AD

Written by David McDonald, Beyond 2000AD is a new book under his Comic Archive banner. The 68 page softback is a fascinating look at the comics that relate to 2000AD, such as Starlord, Tornado, the Judge Dredd newspaper strip and much more.

The book is excellently researched, interviewing people directly involved with the comics such as John Wagner, Carlos Ezquerra,Kelvin Gosnell, Nick Landau, Dez Skinn and others. It's a revealing insight into the workings of IPC in the 1970s, and how creativity was often frustrated by the changing opinions of management. (For example Starlord was revamped from a monthly to a weekly at short notice, and Tornado was intended to be called Heroes until management decided it was "a nothing title".)

There's also a look at the history of the 2000AD material being repackaged for the American market, starting with Eagle Comics' full colour Judge Dredd monthly and how and why Quality Comics took over the reprint operation. There's the background to the newspaper strip version of Judge Dredd and related strips such as the short-lived Scatha (reprinted in full). There's even a feature on the often overlooked Metalzoic by Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill.

I was pleased to see that two people who are seldom (if ever) mentioned in such comic histories are given their due. I'd heard of Doug Church (and I'm sure I met him once up at King's Reach Tower) and knew he worked in production at IPC, but I didn't know he was a strip artist himself, drawing war picture libraries and even moonlighting for DC Thomson's Victor whilst still on the staff at IPC.

Doug's anecdotes prove interesting reading, particularly the information that he was tasked with producing a revamped Eagle in 1972! Frank Bellamy's cover is shown, as are two pages that Joe Colquhoun did for the dummy. Sadly, the project was shelved and Eagle had to wait another ten years for a completely different revival.

5 comments:

interesting choice of the Stainless Steel Rat on the cover.. While I thought that strip was a fairly good comic version of the stories.. I felt the character design slightly lacked a bit.. when he has plastic surgery to change his appearance a fair bit, the artwork didn't show that at all bar some very minor work.. that was kinda the only real let down (well.. that and I don't think Carlos Ezquerra can quite do 'attractive' in my mind, but it's was good for his style, so that was fine ^_^)

this book might be worth a read sometime.. it does sound quite interesting.

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About this blog:

Established in 2006, BLIMEY! is a blog that looks back at classic British comics and sometimes reports on current and upcoming titles. Images are copyright their respective publishers and are only used here for review purposes.

The images of comics on my blog are ones I've scanned from my own personal collection or, in the case of some current issues, are promotional images sent to me by the publishers. I do not support 'piracy' and unlike some I do not use images from dodgy illegal comic scan DVDs, nor do I hotlink images from other sites.

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About Me

I work as a professional humour comics artist and writer and have been freelancing full time since 1984, creating many characters such as TOM THUG, PETE AND HIS PIMPLE, COMBAT COLIN, BRICKMAN, ROBO-CAPERS, DEREK THE TROLL, SUBURBAN SATANISTS and others.
I've freelanced for IPC, Marvel Comics, Egmont, Panini,D.C. Thomson, and many others, covering the comics field from originated characters to licensed properties, pre-school to adult on comics such as BUSTER, OINK!, BEANO, DANDY, TRANSFORMERS, SONIC THE COMIC, TOXIC, VIZ, CiTV TELLYTOTS, LEGO ADVENTURES, HERMAN HEDNING, SWEET FA, ACTION FORCE, SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN, RAMPAGE, LUCKY BAG COMIC, SWIFTSURE, WARLOCK, WHITE DWARF, ACES WEEKLY, THE DAREDEVILS, THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL, and many more.
My recent comics work has included:'Team Toxic' for Egmont's TOXIC magazine'Postman Prat', 'Kid Cops' and 'The Dark Newt' for THE DANDY'Rasher', 'Pup Parade', 'Lord Snooty' and 'Ivy the Terrible' for THE BEANO.
'Felix and His Amazing Underpants', 'Pathetic Sharks' and 'Suicidal Syd' for adult comic VIZ. 'The Daft Dimension' for DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE.